Old tobacco playbook gets new use by e-cigarettes

[bhikkhu]

83. This is why I keep going on with this stuff

because nicotine does cause heart disease, which is the number one cause of death in the US. The study you posted was interesting, and agrees very much with the "e-cigs aren't as bad as smoking" conclusion. But it was a very limited study looking at just one effect. There have been several studies like that over the years, to make sure e-cigs and other nicotine products are safe for people who have had heart attacks and so forth.

On the other hand, the long term effect of nicotine is to cause heart disease. http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/9169/20120223/cigarette-smoke-nicotine-cardiovascular-disease-benefits-smoke-free-products.htm and so forth. The primary actor in the problems that smoking causes for the heart is nicotine; that's been established for decades.

If you want to say e-cigs are much less harmful, no argument. And I hope that the addictive property of nicotine is less with e-cigs as well, which would mean that people would have an easier time stopping if their health required it. But you still don't get to say nicotine doesn't cause heart disease, because it always has. It reminds me of someone who told me once that meth itself isn't bad for you, its just the chemicals and impurities in the street stuff that gets you. Pffft!